A U.S. Marine missing since 1953 was laid to
rest at long last yesterday in Arlington National Cemetery.

About three dozen people attended services
for radar operator Sergeant James "Red" Harrell, who was 21 when his plane
disappeared while returning to its base at Kunsan, South Korea, on May
30, 1953.

Sergeant Harrell's niece, Jimmie McClung, eulogized
the uncle she was named after as "a man who believed in God and country
and chose to join the Marines at a time when his country needed him." She
was presented with an American flag, her uncle's dog tags and the belated
thanks of a grateful nation.

Mrs. McClung, a 2-year-old girl when Sergeant
Harrell disappeared nearly half a century ago, joked about the difficulties
she endured going through life with a man's name. But she turned serious
to describe the bond she felt it created between her and the uncle she
never knew.

"I think my uncle would have thought that was
quite humorous," she said, "and I also think we would have been quite close."

She said she and her husband had spent years
making inquiries into her uncle's disappearance, to no avail. "Now our
search is over," she said, breaking into tears at the pulpit. Charles Harrell,
Sergeant Harrell's nephew, came to honor a promise he made to his father,
who died in 1986 not knowing the fate of his brother. "One of the last
things he asked me to do was attend the service if they ever found his
brother," Mr. Harrell said.

Sergeant Harrell's remains were found last
summer on a beach just miles from the base in Kunsan. The pilot of the
plane, Captain James B. Brown, is still missing.

After the service, the flag-draped casket containing
Sergeant Harrell's remains was escorted to the grave site by an honor guard
of Marines, who fired a 21-gun salute in a steady rain. As a lone bugler
played taps, the rain lessened. And as the honor guard strode in formation
from the grave site, the sun came out.

At least one former Marine could be seen dabbing
his eyes.

Three members of Sergeant Harrell's squadron,
the Marine All Weather Fighter Squadron 513, nicknamed the "Flying Nightmares,"
attended the service.

At a reception afterward, Mrs. McClung shared
yellowed photographs Sergeant Harrell had sent home decades ago. His squadron
mates identified themselves and the other young men that appeared in the
photos, stopping with each picture to tell a story.

Squadron member Ron Harbison balanced himself
with his cane as he lifted a foot, muddied from standing at the graveside
of his friend, to demonstrate the crouch required to fit in the radar operator's
seat.

"You've changed," Harold Ruddy said, teasing
his bespectacled, white-haired squadron mate, Ron Stout Mr. Stout recalled
the night Sergeant Harrell was lost. They were flying separately in Douglas
F3D-2 "Skynights," a "primitive" jet that was used to escort packs of about
a dozen B-29s on nightly bombing missions into the North, he said. Returning
from a mission deep in North Korea, he recalled a final radio conversation
he had with Sergeant Harrell. "We passed through their sector and had to
identify ourselves," he said. "We talked to them on the radio, and Red
said they had been relieved and would fall in behind us."

But Sergeant Harrell's plane never returned.

"By any reckoning they were only two minutes
behind us," said Mr. Stout, who traveled from Burien, Washington, to attend
the service, Mr. Harbison came from Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, and
Mr. Ruddy from Long Branch, New Jersey.

"As soon as I heard about this, I said, 'I'm
coming down,'" Mr. Harbison said. To this day, he said, they all still
wonder what happened to Sergeant Harrell's plane.

"I'm not saying I think about it every day,
but over 49 years, I have thought about it," he said. "It's something you
do because you don't know."

Mike Mankin drove 18 hours with his wife, Ileana,
after reading about the service in a Marine newsletter. A former Marine
himself, he said he was compelled to come and support Sergeant Harrell's
family. "It's because we don't forget our own," he said.

The remains of a U.S. Marine missing since
the Korean War will be laid to rest today at Arlington National Cemetery.

Radar operator Sergeant James V. Harrell's
plane disappeared while returning to base May 30, 1953, after escorting
a convoy of B-29s on a bombing run in North Korea.

His remains were found last summer on a beach
just miles from the base in Kunsan, South Korea. Among those planning to
attend will be Sergeant Harrell's niece, Jimmie McClung, who lives in Austin,
Texas. She was 2 when the uncle whose name she bears disappeared.

"He's always been a part of my life," she said.

She said Sergeant Harrell — who was 21 when
he was lost — was described as a prankster, a religious and patriotic young
man who joined the Marines out of high school.

"I'm greatly relieved because we're going to
give him the honors he's due," said Sergeant Harrell's close friend and
squadron mate Ron Stout, of Burien, Washington, who will be at today's
ceremony. "It's an article of faith among Marines that you bring your dead
home."

He remembers meeting Sergeant Harrell, or "Red,"
in the summer of 1952 at airborne intercept operator school at Cherry Point,
North Carolina. In April 1953 the two men were assigned to the Marine
All Weather Fighter Squadron 513, nicknamed the "Flying Nightmares," based
in Kunsan, South Korea. They flew Douglas F3D-2 "Skynights," a "primitive"
jet that was used to escort packs of about a dozen B-29s on nightly bombing
missions into the north. The nightly grind took its toll on the men and
the machines. But Mr. Stout clearly remembers the night almost 49
years ago when his friend didn't return. The men's planes were assigned
to fly in advance of the convoy at the mouth of the Yalu River deep in
North Korea.

Sergeant Harrell's plane was piloted by Captain
James B. Brown.

"When we got to a point south of Seoul, we
switched to the tower at Kunsan and they were still under the control of
a tower farther north. When we parked the airplane and went into base they
asked us what happened to Harrell and Brown. We said not too much could
have happened to them because they were two minutes behind us."

The next day Mr. Stout and Sergeant Harrell
received letters of promotion to Staff Sergeant.

The squadron could only conduct searches during
the day, and then only for a few days. The Air Force took over the search.

"They were never able to find him," said Mr.
Stout, who was 19 at the time.

He speculates it could have been an engine
failure caused by the unique design of the F3D-2. The jets ran on gasoline
that also served as an engine lubricant, he said. When the plane ran out
of fuel, the engine could seize up and cause the plane to explode.

In Austin, Mrs. McClung had spent a lifetime
quietly searching for her uncle. Then in December, she received what
she describes as a "bittersweet" call from her mother, Sergeant Harrell's
sister, telling her the Marine Corps Casualty Office had used dental records
to provide a positive match on remains found last summer on a beach bordering
the Yellow Sea near Kunsan.

Mrs. McClung's mother, devastated by the loss
of Sergeant Harrell, has chosen not to speak about it.

Mrs. McClung said she was told the discovery
of her uncle's remains was made by a passer-by who saw something suspicious
while walking along the beach. She said South Korean police were called
and then American authorities excavated around the discovery. The remains
were taken to Honolulu, where they were positively identified. Dog tags
and pieces of a flight jacket were also recovered.

Using the Internet, she found several of her
uncle's squadron buddies, including Mr. Stout. Today they will meet, share
stories and photographs, and hope the discovery of Sergeant Harrell keeps
other families optimistic that their missing loved ones might be returned.

According to the Department of Defense, 88,000
U.S. ervice members are missing in action from all conflicts. The pilot
of Sergeant Harrell's plane, Captain Brown, remains one of them.
James Vaughn Harrell of Shreveport, LouisianaBorn November 9, 1931Sergeant, U.S. Marine CorpsMissing in Action - Presumed DeadDied May 30, 1953 in Korea

Sergeant Harrell was a crew member of a F4U
Corsair fighter with the Marine Fighter Squadron 513, Marine Air Group
33, 1st Marine Air Wing. He was listed as Missing in Action while participating
in aerial support over Korea on May 30, 1953. Sergeant Harrell was awarded
the Air Medal with 2 Gold Stars and the Purple Heart.